The new sweet cherry variety ‘Goodwin’ is believed to be a whole tree mutation of ‘Sumleta’ cherry (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,378). The inventor planted ‘Sumleta’ cherry trees in his commercial cherry orchard on Stemilt Hill near Wenatchee, Wash. in 2000. In 2003, he observed that one of the trees was different from the others. In particular, he noted that its fruit matured a week after ‘Sumleta’ and a full 30 days after ‘Bing’ (not patented). The mutated tree was asexually propagated by budding onto ‘Mazzard’ (not patented) rootstock at Quincy, Wash. in 2003. These second generation trees were planted in the orchard in 2005, and fruited in the spring of 2008. In 2005, 150 trees were propagated on ‘Gisela 6’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 8,954) rootstock using scionwood taken from the second generation trees. These third generation trees were planted in the spring of 2007 and fruited in the spring of 2010. All of the trees through the third generation have consistently carried the same late maturing characteristics of the parent tree.
‘Goodwin’ was initially selected for, and is distinguished by, its late maturing fruit. It has also been observed that the blossoms of ‘Goodwin’ are hardier than those of ‘Sumleta’ and ‘Bing’. Approximately 12 days after full bloom, representative branches of ‘Bing’, ‘Sweetheart’, ‘Skeena’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 11,392), and ‘Goodwin’ were collected and blossom hardiness was compared. Table 1 illustrates the improved blossom hardiness of ‘Goodwin’ as compared to the other varieties.
TABLE 1VarietyNumber of viable fruits per 100 blossoms‘Goodwin’95‘Sweetheart’47‘Skeena’46‘Bing’42
The following table illustrates additional distinguishing characteristics of ‘Goodwin’ as compared to ‘Sumleta’ and ‘Bing.’
TABLE 2Characteristic‘Goodwin’‘Sumleta’‘Bing’Maturity date+30+70PollinationSelf-fruitfulSelf-fruitfulPollenizerrequirementrequiredProductivityMuch heavier thanHeavier than ‘Bing’Standard‘Bing’Fruit SizeEqual to or largerLarger than ‘Bing’Standardthan ‘Sumleta’
The colors of these illustrations may vary with lighting conditions. Color characteristics of this new variety should therefore be determined with reference to the observations described herein, rather than from the illustrations alone.